Just over one year previously at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were at last granted the green light as Formula One’s newest entrant for 2026. Building the organization from the ground up has involved a frenetic work rate that the team principal, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo program. As the sport converges on Vegas this race weekend, the team understand the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the championship to be staged in the US, with approximately three months to go before they make their debut for the maiden outing in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have come on in leaps and bounds but, in what must seem like a sisyphean challenge, they are aware there will never be enough hours in the day.
The chief technical officer, Nick Chester, became part of the embryonic team in March 2023 shortly after it was established, when the organization were without even an official entry. He has been at its heart ever since and has a knowing grin when reflecting on the ride.
“There might be five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and think: ‘Amazing, what an achievement what we’ve done in a short three-year period,’” Chester states. “But then the next minute you think: ‘Yeah, there is still a great deal to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity
Chester had success at Renault in Alonso's title-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in charge of technical direction at the then-new Mercedes Formula E team, but nothing has been quite like the challenge of launching the iconic American Cadillac name, a factory team sponsored by the parent company, GM, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Creating an Formula One team from the ground up, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “It's unparalleled. In an existing team you don’t get the possibility to change team culture.”
With every day that passes focus are sharper on the approaching decisive point in the Australian GP and targets are being set realistically.
“You have to assume that any incoming team joining the grid is probably going to finish last but merely participating will be an accomplishment in itself,” the team principal commented earlier this year and while Chester agreed with this sentiment he believed the squad had a statement to make as well.
“Our primary goal we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” he emphasizes. “So that we arrive and we function efficiently. We seek to prove that we’re a proper team doing the right things on the track. After we have demonstrated that our credentials are solid, then we want to show improvement after that.”
Racing Talent and Recruitment Push
In the summer they recruited Checo Pérez and Valtteri as their racers for 2026, a duo distinguished for their vast knowledge in competing at the front in two championship-winning squads, the Red Bull team and Mercedes, and Bottas reflected the attitude of determined optimism.
“Of course, we’re realistic,” he said. “We face a mountain of work to do, and it’s going to be most likely a tough opening, because it's the top level of motorsport. But we aren't joining to stay at the back. I am confident with this setup, with this group, this staff, there is every reason that we can't manage to advance swiftly to the front and achieve good results.”
To achieve that goal hiring has been in overdrive, with staff now at more than 400 and planned to hit the target of six hundred rapidly. Complementing their present headquarters at the UK base, the team are in the phase of completing an main base at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the GM works in North Carolina, where they are developing the center to produce the 2029 engine, scheduled for 2029 – in the meantime they will operate with Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Germany. It is a complex structure, different from the trend in Formula One for increased consolidation, and has prompted the fresh organizational mindset to which Nick Chester alluded.
Apollo Inspiration
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” stated Graeme Lowdon just before the British GP in the summer. “We are pragmatic, we recognize how tough it is. The timelines, are incredibly tight. Well, it's not a space expedition, but the pressure is comparable.”
So they have adopted, rather than the usual hierarchical system, a flat management structure comparable to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of specialist groups all focusing on distinct elements of the project at a different facilities.
“In a system where you follow a process where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor talks to a supervisor at a different location, it travels back down, the process is very slow,” notes Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable staff to take charge. Eliminating management approval for all decisions is so much cleaner and more rapid.”
The Future
The efficacy of this nimble methodology will be tested in the heat of competition in 2026 and there is no little amount at stake for F1, too. Cadillac have recruited as their development driver the 25-year-old American Colton Herta
